Leadership Reflection and Explanation

Leadership Reflection The author of this report has been ask to offer some reflection on leadership in light of what has been discussed, learned and pondered during the author of this report's current master program studies. Indeed, leadership is a very important facet of society, or organizations and of daily life. Every day, it seems that there are leaders who are engaging in abuses, are not upholding the higher standards that they can and should be held to and so forth.

On the other hand, there are other leaders that push the envelope as much as they can in terms of doing the right thing, upholding the right values and leading with conviction. A major aggravating factor with all of this is that the scope, depth and bready of what the "right thing" is and what leaders are compelled to do is quite different from culture to culture or even from person to person.

While it is impossible to please everyone when it comes to leadership, there are ways to bring the greatest amount of good and satisfaction when it comes to executing leadership duties. Analysis The introduction made mention of the fact that many leaders are falling short in terms of ethical or legal standards.

While some may react to this by saying that this is the "new normal" and that the required standards of leadership are being dumbed down or even ignored, there are others that way that those bad leaders are the exception and need to remain that way. At least, that is the observation of the author of this report. The author's thought on the matter is that the proverbial "bar" should not be lowered or otherwise made easier to attain.

Leaders should indeed be held to higher standards just like is true for police officers, judges and so forth. These leaders possess a unique and advanced state in their personal universe and thus they have a duty to act in certain ways and avoid certain patterns. Just as one example, the author of this report is aware of the old adage about the fact that appearance of impropriety can be as bad (if not worse) than actual impropriety.

For example, if an organization allows leaders to fraternize with and date subordinates (which should not be happening in the first place), any employee who ends up doing so will be perceived to be getting preferential treatment even if that is not the case. This is one of the many reasons organizations ban that practice outright.

Something else that has become obvious and apparent in today's society is that many leaders are wishy-washy or even flat-out hypocritical when it comes to the standards that they impose on other versus those that they imposed on themselves, even in ostensibly identical situations. Politicians are won't to make this a pervasive habit, if not an art form.

For example, if a minority party exercises their filibuster or other minority party rights to block legislation or appointees for the majority party, the majority party often squeals and complains even though they would (or have) done the same precise thing when conditions and situations were reversed. An action is either wrong all of the time or none of the time, more or less. To be sure, there are situations that are outliers and that are unique and thus require special handling to remain logical and fair.

However, one's moral and ethical compass should not be vary based on the source of who is saying or doing something. Leaders of more conventional organizations should be held to the same standard. If the marketing and other leaders of Company an assert that they are better in some ways as compared to Company B when it comes to advertising and the like, that is a common way of doing marketing. Unless the claims are false, the right of Company A to do that is pretty clear.

However, if Company B does the same thing in return when it comes to what they do best, Company A has no standing to complain because they are doing it themselves from their own perspective. Another problem that the author of this report sees in terms of leadership is lack of accountability. It seems to be rare and fleeting for a leader to just step up and say that they did the wrong thing or that they otherwise did not perform as they should have.

If/when such a thing comes to pass, it sends a message to the other people in the organization that the leader is not ethical and it can also pollute the actions and behaviors of the employees. Indeed, the people that ran the Enron schemes were manipulating the energy prices on purpose and a lot of innocent people were getting hurt financially. However, it was all part of the game for the leaders of that organization and many employees of the firm followed suit in the subterfuge and bad behavior.

Not only did those leaders not take accountability for their actions, they reveled in it and enjoyed doing it because it was all about the money. Most organizational dysfunction is not nearly that black and white but the lack of accountability is just not there. For example, Yahoo CEO Marissa Meyer banning working from home whilst having a nursery in her office for her child is the height of hypocrisy.

Many might say that rank has its privilege but others (including the author of this report) would say that the optics are extremely bad. If a firm division between home and work life is called for, Ms. Meyer should be practicing what she preaches. When it comes to advocacy groups and the like, the hypocrisy is still no less thick and easy to see.

Al Gore calling manmade global warming skeptics "deniers" (a very loaded term) or "flat-earthers" is extremely unseemly given just how complex the study of ecology and the atmosphere is and given just how little we know about all the pieces and how they fit together. However, what really becomes an issue for Gore is that he has been documented to have a five figure electricity bill at ONE of his houses.

Similarly, Leonardo DiCaprio turned his long-awaited Oscar win into a lecture on global warming while he himself flies to his events and other obligations on private jets. The point is not whether global warming is the crisis that is laid out by these men .. at least not to the author of this report. The real problem is that many of the leaders and faces of these movements are glaring hypocrites and there are legitimate concerns bout what their real motives and pursuits are.

Some say that they are true believers while others say they are just interested in power and/or enriching themselves. Either way, the optics of saying one thing and doing another is a very bad thing for a leader to do. Finally, the author of this report would point to things like pandering and coddling people. Too many leaders are too interested in not offending or riling.